Early Geology
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the emergence of geology as a scientific discipline. A little over two hundred years ago a small group of friends founded the Geological Society of London. This organisation was the first devoted to furthering the discipline of geology - the study of the Earth, its history and composition. Although geology only emerged as a separate area of study in the late eighteenth century, many earlier thinkers had studied rocks, fossils and the materials from which the Earth is made. Ancient scholars in Egypt and Greece speculated about the Earth and its composition. And in the Renaissance the advent of mining brought further insight into the nature of objects found underground and how they got there. But how did such haphazard study of rocks and fossils develop into a rigorous scientific discipline?
Guests
- Stephen Pumfrey
5 episodes
Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at Lancaster University - Andrew Scott
2 episodes
Professor of Applied Palaeobotany at Royal Holloway, University of London - Leucha Veneer
2 episodes
Research Associate at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester
Related episodes
-
Catastrophism
30 Jan, 2014 550 Earth sciences and geology -
Fossils
22 Mar, 2001 560 Fossils and prehistoric life -
Seismology
10 Mar, 2022 550 Earth sciences and geology -
The Earth’s Origins
5 Jul, 2001 500 Science -
Ageing the Earth
20 Nov, 2003 550 Earth sciences and geology -
Science and Religion
25 Jan, 2001 200 Religion -
History as Science
11 Mar, 1999 900 History -
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 3
6 Jan, 2010 500 Science -
Plate Tectonics
24 Jan, 2008 550 Earth sciences and geology -
Science in the 20th century
5 Nov, 1998 500 Science -
The Geological Formation of Britain
22 Oct, 2009 550 Earth sciences and geology -
Doggerland
27 Jun, 2019 930 History of the Ancient World -
Logic
21 Oct, 2010 160 Philosophical logic -
The Scientist
24 Oct, 2002 500 Science -
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 4
7 Jan, 2010 500 Science -
Archaeology and Imperialism
14 Apr, 2005 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Royal Society
23 Mar, 2006 500 Science -
Crystallography
29 Nov, 2012 540 Chemistry -
Magnetism
29 Sep, 2005 530 Physics -
Strabo’s Geographica
10 Apr, 2014 910 Geography and travel
Programme ID: b01dgh7d
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dgh7d
Auto-category: 550 (Earth sciences)